Doreen Ndombi Mbingi: The Head of the Large Taxpayers’ Offiat KRA
Rogue staff at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Large Taxpayers Office are sabotaging President William Ruto’s demand that they must collect more taxes to actualize the Kenya Kwanza development agenda.
Doreen Ndombi Mbingi, who heads the Large Taxpayers Office in December demanded a bribe in millions of shillings from a large multinational company or else she would not allow them to operate in Kenya.
According to trusted sources, the company could only pay her USD 1 million. The money was to be divided between staff at the Large Taxpayers Office, but Doreen Ndombi Mbingi kept it for herself without sharing it with officers from her department.
This has led to bad blood with the affected officers confidently leaking reports of Doreen Ndombi Mbingi’s underhand dealings to the media and bloggers.
Dr Ruto has set a new target to collect Sh4.8 trillion in tax revenue by June 2027, which portends an additional tax implication of Sh1.1 trillion on top of the National Treasury’s earlier projections amounting to Sh3.77 trillion for the same period.
“This target, set by the president, won’t be achieved if the same taxpayers are being asked for bribes, and when they pay one-third of what’s been asked, the officers keep the money, but still refuse to give clearance for the companies to operate. She heads a criminal enterprise wing at KRA, and has misled the Commissioner General on so many occasions, creating a wedge and bad blood between taxpayers and KRA,” says a source who works at the same department.
In a letter dated 5 December 2022, the Betting Control and Licensing Board suspended the licence of Blue Jay Limited, a company that had already adhered to all set regulations.
The reason why the licence was suspended is that they didn’t have KRA clearance
Doreen Ndombi Mbingi had asked for a huge amount of money to give them the clearance. The company only managed to pay one-third of the amount demanded, and Doreen Ndombi Mbingi stuck to her ground saying unless they paid the balance, she won’t give them the license.
She further demanded USD 5m from bookmakers SportyBet and upon failure to be bribed, she misled BCLB into cancelling the license of a business which employs thousands of Kenyans and pumps millions into the Kenyan economy.
The other money she demanded was from a multinational, Blue Jays owned by foreigners.
“In the letter REF. BCLB 11/84 VOL. III (9) dated 28th November 2022, the Board noted and appreciated the assurance you made in your response letter as it relates to the timely implementation of daily remittance of taxes due to KRA.
The Board, therefore, based on your assurance of total compliance, was hopeful that the correspondence between the two entities was to be the last on the subject matter.
The Board has however been informed that you are still not adhering to the daily tax remittance schedule as required. The Board, based on the above grounds has resolved in its Board meeting held on 5th December 2022 to suspend both your Bookmaker and Public Gaming licences for a period of fourteen (14) days with effect from the date of this letter until you prove compliance with the above directives.” reads the letter copied to the company CEO and also KRA.
“It’s on Doreen’s insistence that the BLCB cancelled Blue Jays license unless the money she wanted was paid to her,” says a source privy to the deal gone sour.
People at KRA are now a worried lot if president Ruto’s target will be met because of shenanigans from the head of the Large Tax Payers unit.
Kenya’s annual debt servicing costs remain high—the National Treasury will spend Sh1.393 trillion to service debt by June—even as Dr Ruto pledges to go slow on borrowing, end subsidies, cut government spending and increase revenue collection to expand the fiscal space.
What remains to be seen is if KRA will actually toe the line and do as the president demands or if it will be business as usual, where the likes of Doreen extort millions from honest business people.
“She is on the payroll of the lead bookmaker to ensure all competition is extinguished so that they can thrive further. This has been noticed because she protects them from any form of audit despite the fact that other players are subjected to endless audits,” reveals our source.
Her juniors at the Large Tax court Office are demoralized after they got to know that Doreen received the money but kept them out of the loop.
Many are now asking for transfers from the Large Taxpayers’ Office.
Sources from the department claim she has already received the second deposit of the bribe.
“These games used to happen in the previous regime. There is a new regime and she doesn’t even seem concerned that Dr Ruto’s government has no time for such jokes,” says an insider who further reveals Doreen has been going around telling anyone who cares to listen that she has been promised the Commissioner General job once the current Commissioner Mburu has been kicked out.
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